The massive arctic cyclone in early August broke up the sea ice and skewed the minimum-extent figure this season. Look for the ice to rebound quickly now that temperatures have fallen.

In the meantime, antarctic sea ice extent is way beyond normal for this time of the year. But don’t expect NSIDC to put out any press releases. It doesn’t fit the “humans are melting the polar caps” scare story.

I remember seeing an animation of satellite images showing the obvious flowing of ice out of either side of Greenland some seasons ago . It was obvious wind and or currents were largely responsible for the decline of ice in the arctic basin .

The blasting winds and spectacular jet-streams in the north Pacific and north Atlantic over the past several days should be affecting the arctic ice pack negatively, but they are not.
What comes next is not good for the warmsters, for certain.
Note the circumpolar velocities and the splendid jet dip over the U.S., they are an indicator of heat loss and not of the OLR type…